welcome to nhk world "newsline." the man at the center of a sports scandal in japan has apologized publicly for his win at all costs attitude. he is the head coach of the country's olympic medal winner female judo team. he's admitted to physically abusing top wrestlers in practice and expressed his intention to resign. 15 female wrestlers sent a written complaint to the japanese olympic committee saying soloda and another coach slapped them in the face and p abuse and power harassment.

>> translator: i think it is difficult for me to continue teaching judo. i'm going to submit a document to the all-japan judo federation asking whether or not i should resign. >> he went on to say he never thought what he did would constitute violence. he revealed he just wanted the wrestlers to go the extra mile. officials with the all-japan judo federation say he was involved in a total of five violent incidents from august 2010 to february 2012. they say he admitted to hitting athletes who failed to follow his instructions and jamming them with a stick. they reprimanded solada and the other coach. the new york times says chinese hackers repeatedly penetrated its computer systems over the past four months look for passwords and other sensitive information. the start of the cyber attacks

coincided with "the times" investigation into vast fortunes accumulated by the family of chinese premier wen jiabao. the assault on the network ban in september of 2012 when articles was nearing completion. security experts hired by the newspaper found evidence that the hackers stole the passwords for every "times" employee and used them to gain access to personal computers of 53 members of staff. a "times" story published online on october 25th investigated how wen's relatives built a fortune worth several billions of dollars. the hackers broke into the e-mail account and the shanghai bureau chief who wrote the report. "the times" said there's no evidence that sensitive e-mails or filed related to the investigation into the wen family were accessed, downloaded or copied. the paper started monitoring the computer network closely in october after it learned of

warnings from the chinese government officials that its investigation into the wealth of wen's relatives would have consequences. chinese foreign ministry hong lei denied involvement in the cyber attacks saying it is irrational for "the times" to reach this conclusion without evidence. he said chinese law clearly prohibits computer hacking and that all parties involved will act responsibly. police in the u.s. state of arizona are searching for a gunman who killed one person and wounded two others. the shooting occurred on the same day u.s. senators discussed tightening the country's gun laws. authorities say the gunman shot at three men in an office building in phoenix. they believe the suspect fired the weapon after an argument in a meeting. the incident led to the building being evacuated. also on wednesday former democratic congresswoman gabrielle giffords testified at a senate hearing on gun control.

she was shot in the head in arizona two years ago. giffords referred to the school shooting in connecticut in december that killed 26 people. she appealed for bipartisan support for stricter gun laws. >> iwill be the time is now. you must act. >> a top executive from the national rifle association of powerful gob lobby told the hearing that tougher controls on guns would not eradicate gun-related crime. >> the problem with gun laws is criminals don't cooperate with them, the mentally ill don't cooperate with them, but let's do the things that work. >> president barack obama is hoping to ban the sail of assault weapons with high-capacity magazines. many japanese companies are reporting earnings results for the latest quarter this week.

nearly 300 companies listed on the tokyo stock exchange and the market for high-end growth emerging were out with results thursday. they account for 17% of listed companies. the recent yen weakness and higher stock prices are having an impact on their business performance. toshiba reported results between april and december of 2012. the maker of electronic equipment says operating profit rose 12% in yen terms from the period in 2011 to about a billion dollars. as the main factors of cite souring demand at home and abroad and stronger chip demand for smart phones. toshiba says net income jumped to $600 million, that's more than six times larger than the year before. the company says the weak yen dramatically improved its bottom line. meanwhile, seven out of nine electric power companies have reported their results posted

losses due to a sharp rise in fuel costs. the utilities except for okinawa were in the red between april and december 2012. tokyo electric power is not reporting results because it's currently under state control. four utility posted record losses for the period. kyushu, $2.6 billion. kansai, $1.7 billion. meanwhile, tohoku sustained a loss of $600 million. chubu, $24 million. power utilities had to shoulder higher fuel costs as demand for thermal power generation rose. this is because most of the nation's nuclear power reactors remain offline after the fukushima daiichi accident. their bottom lines were hurt further by more expensive imported fuel, which was pushed higher by the weaker yen. nippon airways expects a $15

million drop in sales for january that's because of lost revenue stemming from the capslation of all its boeing 787 dreamliner flights. the japanese carrier also noticed ana says its operating profit from april to december 2012 totaled $1.2 billion, that's up 18% in yen terms from a year earlier and is the company's record high. however, following the suspension of all boeing 787 flights by the authorities, ana had to cancel about 460 flights up to thursday. ana's executive vice president kyoshi kyomoto says business will be affected if it takes more time for the boeing 787 flights to be resumed yet added the company has no intention at present to change the policy of introducing 49 dreamliner aircraft by the year 2020. new home building in japan was up in 2012 compared to the previous year. that's the third straight year of increases, but the figure

remains low. the infrastructured a ministry says the construction of 828,000 unites started across the nation last year, that's up 5.8% from 2011. the ministry says the rise is due to low-interest rates on home mortgages. housing starts have been above 1 million units until the collapse of lehman brothers in 2008 that triggered the financial crisis. the ministry says it will match the impact on the housing market of an economic stimulus announced this month. the officials say another focus will be whether the consumption tax hike scheduled for april next year will spur last-minute purchases of homes. officials from a japanese car industry organization expect domestic sales of new vehicles this year to be lower than 2012. the japan automobile manufacturers association has put its forecast for 2013 at 4.7 million units. that's down 11.7% or 630,000

units when compared with the year ago. the figure represents the first decline in two years. officials of the association say demand has slackened after government subsidies for buyers of eco-friendly vehicles expired last september. they also project last-minute buying is not likely ahead of a planned consumption tax hike in april next year. that's because of an expected reduction in the auto purchase tax. the association adds prospects are grim because the replacement cycle for cars is getting longer. now let's check on the markets. european stocks are trading lower. investors are apparently taking profits as they remain cautious ahead of the key u.s. jobs data due out on friday. looking at london's ftse down by a little more than half a percent. frankfurt's dax down about the same. and the cac40 in paris down almost .80%. asian stock prices meanwhile were largely mixed on thursday.

tokyo's nikkei average was up .20%. it managed a gain of three days in a row benefiting from a weaker yen. hong kong shares pulled back from a recent rally as many investors felt the market overheated in the recent days. the bench mark hang seng fell .39% from wednesday's 20-month closing high. south korea's kospi was down and investor sentiment was weakened by u.s. economic data. we'll look at currencies, the dollar is trading tight against the yen. market players are refraining from opening new positions ahead of friday's u.s. key economic data. dollar/yen 91.02-03. the your owe trading slightly higher against the yen. that's on receding worries about the debt situation in europe. euro/yen 123.35-40. british prime minister david cameron says authorities must use every means possible to fight terrorism. cameron traveled to algeria, the

site of the hostage crisis earlier this month. he and prime minister abdelmalek sellal announced an agreement to tighten security. >> what i want to do is work with the algerian government and with other governments in the region to make sure that we do everything we can to combat terrorism in a way that is both tough and intelligent and uses everything we have at our disposal, which will make them safer and make us safer, make the world safer. >> the leaders met two weeks after the hostage siege. islamist militants attacked a gas complex in the sahara desert and took dozens captive. 37 foreigners were killed including 6 british citizens. cameron says british and algerian officials will cooperate in several areas including information gathering. his visit was the first by the leader of the country whose citizens died during the crisis. participants in a u.n. disarmament conference voiced negative opinions about japan's plan to keep using nuclear fuel. they say it's a concern

especially after the 2011 accident in fukushima. more than 70 government officials and experts from 16 countries are taking part in the three-day conference in shizuoka city. a u.s. nuclear expert miles pomper questioned japan's policy of pursuing nuclear fuel cycling even after the fukushima accident. >> moving forward with additional generation of plutonium for the reactors is just not very sensible. >> pomper said the risk of a terrorist attack could go up if japan has a larger amount of unnecessary plutonium. the u.s. must main taint high nuclear technology because many developing countries want nuclear power. criminals in japan have raked in record amounts of money using fraud. police say con artists stole about $400 million last year from victims due in part to more

sophisticated techniques. these scammers have in the past pretended to be family members of their targets. they phone to ask for money and convince their victims to make bank transfers, but in more than half the cases last year con artists visited their victims at home. they posed as representatives of relatives and in some cases walked away with cash. national police agency spokespersons say criminals are also duping people with fake financial products and they say returns from this kind of fraud have nearly tripled to around $200 million. investigators say con artists target individuals using fake products such as the sale of stocks and non-existing companies or they sometimes claim bogus transactions could amount to insider trading and trick victims into paying to hire lawyers. victims usually fall for a

similar scam. >> reporter: it happened to this tokyo resident who is in her 80s. she received a phone call last april from a man claiming to be her grandson. he said he had forgotten a bag on a train containing the equivalent of about $220,000. he asked her to give him money to replace it. the woman had been aware of this kind of fraud. her husband had even warned her about it that same morning. still, she says she was convinced the caller really was her grandson. >> translator: i i thought to myself, i know my grandson is in trouble. i've got to help him. >> reporter: con artists spin other tales. some pretend to be family members who need help paying back money to their company or covering personal things, such as abortions. they ask their victim, who are

usually elderly, to transfer large amounts of money to a bank account. con artists stole about $47 million in 2003. a year later they netted about $310 million. police crackdowns and awareness campaigns led to a drop in fraud cases in 2009. for example, authorities worked with banks to freeze suspect accounts but criminals changed their tactics and fraud took off again. some now pose as operators of adult websites claiming fictitious fees. others pretend to represent family members and attempt to collect cash or bank cards. these money scams are happening elsewhere in asia. chinese and taiwanese authorities announced in june

2011 that they arrested nearly 600 members of a cross-border criminal group on bank transferred fraud charges. south korean authorities say the number of money transfer frauds increased ten-fold between 2007 and 2011. police say they're tinryg to stay ahead of the con artists but they note individuals also need to play a role. nhk world's tomomitsu, most people are aware of this type of crime, why are they still falling victims to these scams? >> criminal groups are now using more varied and sophisticated techniques. the classic case where a con artist pretends to be a family member to steal money declined last year by more than 1,000 incidents to about 3,600. police awareness campaigns have been credited. but the number of fraud cases

has increased by more than 1,500. some premier groups are moving away from bank transfers because of limits on the amount of money that can be moved. an increasing number of them collect cash from victims in person aiming for a bigger payout. this is reflected in the statistics. more money is being swindled in individual cases. the amount lost increased by about $16,000 per case last year compared to 2011. that pushed up the total amount as well. >> you mentioned police awareness campaigns, authorities have been trying to stop this kind of fraud for years. what else can they do? >> well, with japanese police cooperating with their international counterparts, it's clear the stakes are higher than ever. they started a campaign late last year to warn potential fraud targets. they managed to obtain a target

list circulated among criminal groups with names of elderly and vulnerable people. police hope contacting potential victims directly will prove more effective in fighting fraud. they are also urging people to use answering machines or services to screen all incoming calls. criminals seldom leave messages because the evidence could be used against them. without immediate contact with fraudulent callers, people can take their time deciding what's genuine and what's fake. police say common sense can often be the best defense. >> thank you, tomomitsu. sometimes tragedy can lead to hope. in 2001 a south korean student living in tokyo died while trying to help a japanese man

who had fallen off a station platform. 12 years later his legacy is helping bridge the gap between the two countries even in the face of relations due to a territory dispute and conflicts of history. anna jung has more. >> reporter: it was here at this station in tokyo that he died 12 years ago. on the anniversary -- >> translator: it is a comfort for me to know that my sop is still honored here. >> translator: many people remember his action. i'm happy my son remains in people's hearts. >> reporter: the accident occurred on the evening of january 26, 2001. japanese men jumped down to rescue a drunken man who had fallen onto the tracks but all

three men were hit by a train and died. ye was 26 years old. he had come to tokyo to study japanese to get a job at a trading company. his dream was to serve as a bridge between the two countries, south korea and japan. his family lives in hussein. the night before the anniversary of his death relatives and friends gathered in their apartment for a memorial service. his parents have received many letters of condolence, especially from people in japan expressing appreciation and gratitude for his courageous action. >> translator: there were so many things my son wanted to do.

he had many dreams but they were snatched away. >> reporter: after ye's death, many people sent donations to his parents. in 2002 they set up a foundation in his name offering scholarships for young people to study in japan. to date around 600 students from around 16 countries including south korea, china and vietnam have been helped by these scholarships. more than a decade has passed since he died. a new generation is carrying on his dream of building bridges between south korea and japan. one person who has benefited from the scholarship is yun jung ung. she works for a major japanese appliance maker. she studied in japan and earned a master's degree in management

from a japanese university. >> translator: his story gave me courage. he inspired me to take a dream so i applied for the scholarship. >> reporter: oh worked in the personnel department to survey as a bridge between the headquarters in japan and the staff in south korea. because she understands the cultures of both countries, she can help overcome any differences that arise. >> translator: south korea and japan need to come together to insure economic development in east asia. my dream is to help bring the two countries together. >> reporter: ye's parents hope the scholarship will endure far into the future. >> translator: i think this scholarship is very meaningful

because it brings together people from different countries. we may have historical difficulties but we should cooperate. >> reporter: keeping ye's memory alive, young workers like oh are helping to create new ties between japan and south korea. anna jung, nhk world, seoul. severe storms have caused significant damage in the southeast u.s. meteorologist robert set speta is here with the forecast for there and the rest of the world. >> a lot of the storms that caused that damage and two deaths is now pushing off the east coast. so all the tornado watches affecting the area are finally starting to calm down. we are seeing heavy snow across portions of canada there, especially out in quebec to new brunswick as the storm pushes off into that direction. the wind could gust up to 100 kilometers per hour creating

blizzard conditions, but behind it tranquil weather setting up for most of the u.s. and canada. there's one place that is the exception. we have the lake-effect snow that's going to be starting to set up here as those northwesterly winds continue to flow down here towards the south running over these warm lakes. places like detroit, chicago, erie and over to buffalo, you're going to be seeing up to 30 centimeters of snowfall in the localized heavy bands. definitely want to continue to watch this. it looks like it will continue to linger throughout the remainder of the workweek and extending into the weekend. as far as temperatures go, really cooling down with that northwesterly air. minus 22 in winnipeg. chicago, minus 8. south of the arctic air mass, oklahoma city up to 14. and houston at 19. now we'll take a look over to east asia here. into japan i've been seeing sunny skies but there's still sea effect continuing to linger across portions of hokkaido and has been accumulating rather heavy. here's video out of hokkaido where you can see this

accumulation really building up here. it caused heavy snow to collapse an apartment's roof here in hokkaido. the resident actually had to call the police saying they heard the roof collapse and they were stuck inside. so a very, very scary situation all due to about 63 sent meters of snow accumulation building on top of the roof here. so that is -- you can see there now, it is causing this damage here, but you're also going to be looking at the ice festival coming up here relatively soon. so all that snowfall is causing damage to homes. at least it is good for something. but now we are looking at the next storm system coming out of china. that's going to be bringing some heavy rainfall. about 50 millimeters and will eventually work over to japan. the problem with all that snowfall we are talking about, that is also going to be warming up the temperatures. what that's going to do is bring the snow melt along with the heavy rain, flood manager the valleys as well a problem. tokyo with a high of 13 here on friday. expect that to get into the teens going into saturday. off to the west, shanghai at 13.

then we look at the tropics both into the 30s for manila to bangkok. now we'll take a look at europe with a storm system moving across the british isles bringing gusty winds at this time, but good news going into friday. it will start to taper off. winds will start to decrease. still seeing a lingering rain shower. it will be shifting over to snow as the jet stream continues to drip down to the south even into the alps with heavy snowfall. temperatures will be cooling off, too. london and paris, a high of 10 and 11 on thursday. paris, your low through the overnight going into friday will be dipping down near and even below the freezing mark. so things are going to get rather chilly here. looking to the east, moscow not even making it to the freezing mark. minus 3 here for your high. that's a look at the world weather. here's your extended forecast.

we'll be back in 30 minutes with more news. i'm gene it is otani in tokyo. for all of us here at nhk, have for all of us here at nhk, have a great day where you are.

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